Archive for the ‘Blog Musings’ Category

A question Mrs. S asked today and I agree. But enough complaining! Time to catch up on Searing family related items just in time to squeeze into a July posting. And of course I reserve the right to expand on these next month! In no particular order: a trip to Ohio to visit my brother Stan, with several visits to Ft Wayne IN that included two visits to the Allen County Library in Ft Wayne, that happens to be the second largest genealogy library in the country (the world). It was an amazing collection of references that we only had time to dig into a few volumes about early Searings in Conn and Long Island NY. Fascinating…worlds away from how we live now. I’ve also been working on an ‘ad’ recruiting an interested young person to help with some Searing related projects: finishing a rough Searing 50 state census, checking census indices to determine the spread and growth of Searings across the US, continuing our listings of Searings in achievement categories such as art, music, and sports, and doing a global map of Searing locations. My brother suggested a letter of recommendation as compensation…that initially sounded odd, but most letters come from standards sources such as teachers and coaches. Conducting independent quality (genealogy?) research would be a different set of skills. And our Facebook group My Name is Searing continues to grow…138 members. And through the Group I made a contact with a relative of Dennis Searing, a pool/billiards cue maker of extraordinary talent…based on the value of his product. I hope we can learn more about Dennis’s craft in the future. And then there was the adventure of the stereo view of Point Pleasant 1889 (inscribed on the back) along with a stamp or writing of ‘Searing’. Although the card and a companion one sold on eBay for a large amount, no explanation of the Searing mark has come out. Unfortunately the month ended with the passing of a Searing from Chico, CA. We regret the loss of any of our extended family.

Genealogy things..It is hard to find time…but there are things happening. I explored using other genealogy programs, and tried to dig into the ones I have. I often wonder if I’m more interested in the workings of exploring genealogy tools rather than researching family members. And of course my fixation is trying to work out the whole Searing family..while still doing work on my own branch. This month I also joined two new Facebook groups, Technology for Genealogy and The Organized Genealogist (I certainly need that one!). The questions in the Technology one are basic but interesting. I also bought a fascinating Searing item: a large picture embedded in some sort of early plastic…several gentlemen in front of a sign that says ‘Searing Pleasure Club’. No one has been able to ID it so far. A pic and more details are in the group My Name is Searing on Facebook. If you want more details, please leave a comment. We will try to find more information.

OK…OK…I admit it….my poor blog has been sadly neglected. Rather than go into a whole lot of reasons…..you bloggers know what they are….let’s just jump right in. I’m sorry it’s been so many months since there have been entries. We’ll try to fix that. We still want each and every reader of these posts to come back for more. We hope we can encourage guest comments in greater numbers. A lot has been happening in the Searing world that I will report on in the coming days/weeks/months. For example: the My Name is Searing Group on Facebook has expanded considerably; two more Searing Facebook groups have started; I took an Ancestry DNA test and got some interesting, if not unexpected, results; one of the new Facebook groups resulted in the discovery and meet ups of long lost cousins; I bought another Searing painting on eBay and may be on the trail of finding out more about Searing artists; I also bought a very old ‘spirits/medicine’ bottle that still needs a lot of detective work; at least one new person has checked in by finding this blog and then following it to Facebook; we have expanded our Searing inquiries to Australia and the UK and Europe……just a sample of the exciting things happening in the Searing world… And now it’s my challenge to report on these and make them interesting to our readers. This I will try to do!

In case you have missed it, there is LOTs happening in a Facebook Searing group, the Searing Ancestry Group….newly found whole families that had lost touch, double cousins…really….go check it out! If you have trouble joining or viewing, let me know and we will see you have access…or you can friend Jennifer Karpin the groups guiding light….go Jen!! And, don’t forget to check out the My Name is Searing group as well. We have a lot of dedicated members who post and always have good stuff about Searings to report…but…we can use more! If you have something or someone you want to spotlight, or if you find a Searing mentioned, please feel free to post away!

With Spring blossoming all over maybe I can cultivate some blog growth as well. It sorely needs some refreshing! To that end, a couple of quick items. Cole Searing, a young race car driver living in Huron, SD, and operating Cole Searing Motorsports, is again selling Searing Racing T-shirts this year for $25.00 plus postage. He can be contacted on Facebook or drop me an email and I will try to put you in contact with him. And, my Searing genealogical expert, Laura Davenport, has launched a blog of her own, Dead-Lines. The link is in the Blog Roll on the main page. It’s well worth checking out!

And, WOW, I just have to add that a quick check of Linked-In shows 249 Searing entries!! Amazing! I will try to do a separate Linked In entry soon summarizing some of the search results….

I have created a spreadsheet in Google Docs listing the states in alphabetical order down the left hand column, and Searing name and variations at the top of the columns to the right. The name and viariations are: Searing, Serring, Sering, Seiring, Syring, Siring, Sehring. I will be happy to add any reasonable variations suggested.When done this should give us an approximation of the numbers of the “Searing” name and variations in all the states. Of course the information available is only from public records available on the internet through the common ‘people’ search engines. I make no claim as to their accuracy or reliability.Since this is in Google Docs, I am happy to give you access to this spreadsheet if you want to help with the survey. Just send me a note thru the blog or on FB (Daniel A. Searing) and I will reply by message. Let’s see how this works! Could easily be expanded to other research projects.Any and all suggestions welcome! Special thanks to Scott Searing from FB for this idea! He has also contributed to this blog. Also check out the My Name is Searing on Facebook. Dan

A delightful surprise ‘cuz’ meeting Monday..Mrs. S & I picked up new glasses in Southern Md, visited a consignment shop nearby a friend had told us about, paid for a purchase and owner asked, ‘is your name Searing?’ Yes. “Our assistant manager is a Searing”….and introduced us to Beth Searing Rodgers! What a surprise to both of us, as our name (as you know) is not that common. We had a great chat, identified some mutual FB friends and agreed to keep in touch. She’s on FB. Go friend her….:) The shop is Cherry Pickers Consignment in Owings, MD. If you are in that area, please check it out. We like to support Searing businesses or ones with Searing involvement…… They also have an FB page if you are interested.

May was a good month for Searings on the internet. First, Facebook ‘opened up’ the My Name is Searing group, by, I think, showing posts made to the group on member’s pages, and I suppose email if you have so chosen. This has increased participation in the group. we now really have Searing’s talking to Searings…instead of just posting the occasional comment. I hope we can keep up the momentum! Second, a lot of Searings have accomplished interesting things, from coaching to playing to announcing in sports, authoring and publishing a book, and listing some interesting ‘stuff’ on eBay. I will try to do a listing hitting the high points in the next day or two. If you review the list and see something missing, please let me know.

My book out today! Buy it at B&N http://bit.ly/jjw481 or Amazonhttp://amzn.to/jRNXrt. Thanks to all my friends and family who contributed recipes and support!Full disclosure, Dan is my son. We are very proud of him for taking the time to author this seminal work on punch recipes! Check it out by getting your copy soon! And if there are other recent Searing authors out there, please let me know!! Happy to do as many featured Searing artists as we can!!

A quick summary entry for April! Been collecting stuff for the blog, but lazy about doing an entry. So here goes the summary: AdamSearing of the Progressive Pulse in NC has made several posts this month on health care issues in NC. They are all great reads, applicable to many, if not all of the other states facing the same issues with the new health care plan. Gary Searing was mentioned in ConnecticutPlus.com, in a feature on fund raising for the MS Society. Gary is also on Facebook. Dennis Searing surfaced again in AZBilliards Forum, with some photographs of some of his extraordinary cues. And, a great story on Bill Searing of Brazil, IN, making a wonderful comeback from open heart surgery. I would like to do a feature on him next month. Nothing of import has been showing up on eBay with Searing attached. No paintings, no planes….come on folks, we need some more Searing stuff! In addition, through Legacy.com, I started a search using ObitMessenger for the name Searing and several variations. This is a no cost service of Legacy that searches for obits of the names you specify. After an initial rush of names, none have shown up. This is a great service tho, for family obit name searches. And, I continue to post on Twitter as dansearingSr, so please follow me. I RT most entries by other Searings, and use the hashtag #searing, so you should be able to search on that for updates. I have met several great Searing family members through Twitter…although I will have to admit, lots younger than me. :) Its still a fascinating and evolving service. And, so is Facebook…I continue to meet and friend fascinating Searings. Come visit me and the My Name is Searing Group…we need you! And I’m always looking for tips on Searing folks and Searing stories for the blog….send me a story link! And speaking of links..I have links to all the above, but I am sure they can also be found through search engines. If not, send me a comment or an email and I will provide you with the link.